Just as fans routinely pack Rupp Arena to watch the Wildcats play, Kentucky annually leads the nation in average attendance. The NCAA?s recently compiled attendance figures from this past season reveal that in 2006-07, for the 11th time in 12 years, UK?s average crowd of 23,421 led all of Division I men?s basketball.

It marks the 19th time in the 31-year history of Rupp Arena that Kentucky has had the top attendance figure. A total of 374,737 fans passed through the turnstiles in downtown Lexington for 16 Wildcat games during the 2006-07 season. Syracuse, with an average crowd of 21,516, was second, followed by North Carolina (20,693), Tennessee (19,661) and Louisville (18,488).

Nationally, a record 27.7 million attended Division I men?s games last season, an average of 5,548 per game. The Southeastern Conference was second among all conferences in average attendance, drawing 11,972 fans, behind only the Big Ten?s 12,760 average.